Odds & Ends

It’s a match made in ... a high-security psychiatric ward. The Swedish newspaper Expressen reports that a notorious killer known as the “Skara Cannibal” is engaged to marry an infamous murderer known as the “Vampire Woman.” According to Michelle Gustafsson, aka “Vampire Woman,” the happy couple met in a psychiatric hospital and flirted over Internet chat rooms. Gustafsson was convicted in 2010 of stabbing a father of four to death in Stockholm. According to local media, she wrote morbid poetry about the killing on her blog and posted a picture of herself dressed as a vampire. Gustafsson’s paramour is Isakin Jonsson, the “Skara Cannibal,” who was convicted in 2011 of killing his girlfriend—a mother of two—cutting off several of her body parts and eating them. “I love Michelle. I have never met anyone like her. I would like to lead a non-criminal life,” Jonsson was quoted as saying in Expressen. It is unclear if the two will be released from the prison hospital anytime soon, but they do have plans to move in with one another. “We want to get to live together, keep dogs and spend time on our hobbies, piercing and tattoos,” Gustafsson told Expressen.

Dateline: Sweden

A 31-year-old female inmate is threatening to sue the government because she isn’t getting any vacation time. Natalia Pshenkina, who was convicted of her ex-boyfriend's murder in 2005, said she took a job inside southern Sweden’s Ystad prison in 2010 and now believes she is owed paid vacation under Swedish labor laws. “I’ve asked the head of production about which times during the year the prison allows vacation time for inmates. The answer was that the prison doesn't have any vacation time at all,” Pshenkina wrote in her complaint to the Swedish Chancellor of Justice. Pshenkina is seeking compensation for the two years she has been denied vacation. A spokesperson for the Swedish Prison and Probation Service told the Local newspaper prisoners working inside the facilities are not protected under the same laws as unincarcerated workers.

Dateline: Spain

The entire northern Spanish town of Sodeto won part of a $950 million jackpot known as “El Gordo”—all except one man, that is. The New York Times reports that some 70 households in Sodeto bought winning tickets for Spain’s Christmas lottery. A local homemakers group made the rounds late last year, selling national lottery tickets to raise money. Unfortunately, filmmaker Costis Mitsotakis got overlooked in the sales sweep. As a result, all 250 residents of Sodeto—other than Mitsotakis—took home at least $130,000 each. The isolated village is home to primarily farmers who have suffered hardship in the wake of Spain’s economic downturn and a sustained drought. Now some Sodeto residents, as well as people from 17 nearby villages, are instant millionaires, having bought tickets with the same winning number from the civic group. The amount of winnings is based on the number of tickets each person bought. Mitsotakis told the Times he wasn’t too mad about missing out on the money, as one of his newly rich neighbors ended up purchasing some land off him.

Dateline: Tennessee

A Brentwood man, angry that an ambulance was blocking his car, hopped in the driver’s seat and tried to move it—while paramedics were busy loading up a patient. According tothe Tennessean newspaper, the emergency workers were responding to a medical call at the 300 block of Killian Way in Mt. Juliet at the time. EMTs were putting the patient in the back of the ambulance when they heard the engine start up. The medical technicians were able to stop 65-year-old Warren F. Melamed before he drove off in the vehicle. Melamed was later arrested and charged with unauthorized use of a vehicle.

Dateline: Washington

An Occupy Seattle protester found a unique way to speak out against gentrification. She married a warehouse. The 107-year-old warehouse was set to be demolished and replaced with luxury apartments. Protesters connected to the Occupy Seattle movement recently started taking up residence in the abandoned building, hoping to turn it into a community center with free child care and art displays. Babylonia Aivaz felt so strongly about the Capitol Hill area landmark that she decided to marry it in a public ceremony. “I’m doing this to show the building how much I love it, how much I love community space and how much I love this neighborhood,” Aivaz told Seattle’s KOMO-TV. The event was described as a “gay wedding” because Aivaz said the building had a “female vibe.” An estimated 200 Occupy Seattle protesters attended the nuptials.